For many years harvesters, such as agricultural balers, have been used to consolidate and package crop material so as to facilitate the storage and handling of the crop material for later use. Usually, a mower-conditioner cuts and conditions the crop material for windrow drying in the sun. When the cut crop material is properly dried, a harvester, such as a baler, travels along the windrows to pick up the crop material and form it into compact bales.
In a conventional harvester, the cut crop material is gathered at the front of the harvester from along the ground by a pickup assembly, and passed into a crop feeding channel where the material can be further cut before being introduced into a bale-forming chamber. Once there, the processed crop material is formed in a bale of the appropriate shape, and typically the bale forming is terminated according to a diameter or weight criterion.
There are several problems that commonly occur with the conventional crop feeding process. For example, in square balers, one of the most common types of harvesters, crop material is compacted by a piston or plunger which forces the material through a linear bale chamber. Typically, the bale chamber is volumetrically smaller at its exit, such that the crop material is compacted into the appropriate shape as it passes through the bale chamber. This compression can generate excess heat, and if not properly dissipated, this heat can damage the crop material or impede proper functioning of the mechanical components of the baler itself.
The instant application provides a crop feeding mechanism that uses one or more screws or augers in place of a traditional feeding mechanism. Crop material is picked up off the ground and fed into the crop feeding mechanism where the augers compact the crop material as it is moved through a bale chamber.